Bags, Tags and Boxes ~ New Challenge for Stamps and Stencils

Hi everybody ! It's time for a new challenge over at the Stamps and Stencils blog. Cec is our very talented host this month and she has chosen the title Tags, Bags and Boxes. This is what Cec has to say.....

With Christmas coming up and the gift buying underway, we are going to need something to wrap them in.  Let's make some mixed media tags, bags & boxes that will be as treasured by the recipient as the gift itself.  Don't forget to include some stamping or stenciling.

I've made these little fabric gift bags and decorated them using a stamped and coloured transfer. I love this medium for decorating fabric with stamped images, as the image stays nice and sharp. I aleady had a few pieces of leftover calico cloth, so I decided to make the little bags before decorating them. On reflection, I think it would be easier to buy some bags as they were quite fiddlesome to make. The transfer printing process was much more fun ! This is how I did it......
I firstly die cut some circles from a sheet of Tee Shirt Transfer paper, I bought mine from Asda....

I used the largest circle punch I have, I found that the first circle didn't cut as cleanly as I had wanted. To resolve this issue, I used a thin piece of card placed on top of the transfer paper before punching out the other circles. Those big punches do not cut well through thin papers. Punching through the card and transfer paper together worked much better.

I then used distress colours with a blending tool, over the surface before stamping the images with black Archival Ink. I then left them for a few minutes to dry, as you cannot use a heat tool or the surface will melt.

In order to create a firm surface for ironing on the transfer, I slotted a cork coaster inside each bag before pressing. I was really pleased with the results, here are some close ups......

I threaded some dyed seam binding through each of the bags, and added a simply stamped label and a little 'rusty' jingle bell. I think these little bags would be excellent stuffed with some crafty goodies! Many thanks to Cec for setting this challenge, it means that I have finally made a start on Christmas! If you fancy a little crafting and it doesn't have to be Christmassy, we would love to see your tags, bags or boxes over on our Stamps and Stencils blog. Click on this link and you will find all the challenge details as well as seeing some brilliant work by Cec and the rest of the design team. Hope to see you there ! x